Sunday, August 26, 2007

Road Trip, Day 32, Honey, I'm Home

Soon I will fill in the missing days, mostly spent in the woods where there was no internet available, and give an overview of the trip as a whole, like how many States we actually visited. For now, I'll just briefly recap the road home and go reconnect with my own bed - ah, bliss.

We made it home from Wisconsin in two days, one of which was quite long. The first day we made it all the way to Minden, Nebraska, home of the Pioneer Village that we really wanted to see. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I was really anxious to remedy my growly stomach, but we first went to the Pioneer Village Motel and checked in. That's when we found out they didn't have internet available. Or shampoo, etc. Oh, well. Too bad I packed like I was going to a normal hotel and so couldn't get to our own amenities. We just love to camp out at hotels.

At least the Pioneer Village Restaurant was right next door. Please do yourselves a favor and never eat there. The service was the worst I've ever had, and the food was (at best) inadequately prepared. In other words, don't ruin a perfectly good empty stomach at this place. There are worse things than hunger.

The Pioneer Village itself was really great, though, when we finally got there the next morning. The only problem was our refusal to eat at the restaurant again, and the fact that there was nowhere else nearby, so we only stayed a couple of hours and then hit the road with some great photos and some mixed memories.

The last thing I'm going to mention tonight is a recap of my license plate insanity. Over the duration of the trip, I found all of the States except Hawaii. The penultimate find was Montana, which I didn't spot until driving through Wyoming today on our way home. I consider that a pretty good score. The only other extra plate I really wanted to find but didn't was Washington D.C. I almost never get that one. I find Hawaii more than that — usually around military bases. I also found eight different Canadian Provinces. That's a new record for me.

It was a wonderful trip, but it feels so good to be home. Now if I can just get the laundry done, and the photos downloaded and get them linked to my web site... I'm sure I can figure out how to do that, right?